This invention relates to cameras for making motion pictures, and more specifically, to cameras for making motion pictures with a "3-D" effect.
It is known in the art to make motion pictures that generate a 3-D effect by using two lenses. An example of a motion picture camera for accomplishing this effect is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,966, issued to W. C. Hoch. The camera illustrated therein contains a left lens and a right lens sitting side by side for recording an image on film. A set of prisms shifts the image from the left lens both upwardly and to the right, while a second set of prisms shifts the image from the right lens both downwardly and to the left. In this way, images from the right lens and images from the left lens are recorded over vertically separated parts of the film being exposed.
In accordance with the prior art, the right lens and the left lens are horizontally spaced about 2.5 inches from each other. When the film is projected, a special projection lens apparatus, used in conjunction with a special pair of glasses, permits the right eye of the viewer to see the image recorded by the right lens, while the left eye of the viewer sees the image recorded by the left lens. In this way, the viewer receives various "visual cues" that appear to the viewer as three-dimensional effects. This is because the image that the right eye receives is slightly different from the image that the left eye receives.
When a viewer perceives a normal three-dimensional object, the image that the right eye receives is also slightly different from the image that the left eye receives. This is because the right eye of an average person is 2.5 inches from the left eye of that person. By recording images of objects with lenses that are 2.5 inches apart, and presenting these images to each eye individually, a camera enhances the realism that the viewer experiences by duplicating the visual cues that the viewer would receive if he were looking at the actual object filmed.